The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-06-30

my country will care for my family as
they did in the soldiers asylums for the
orphans in the civil war, and my country
will honor my dust as it honors those who
preceded me in patriotic sacrifice, and
once a year, at any rate, on Decoration
Day, shall be resurrected into the re-
membrance of those for whom died.
Here go, for God and my country"
II foreign foe should ever come, all sec
tional animosities would be obliterated.
Here go our regiments into battle, side by
side, Fifteenth New York Volunteers,
Tenth Alabama Cavalry, Fourteenth
Pennsylvania Riflemen, Tenth Massachu-
sets Artillery, Seventh South Carolina
Sharpshooters. have no. faith in the
cry: IN North, no South, no East, no
West" Let all four sections keep their
peculiarities and their preferences, each
doing its own work and not interfering
with each other; each of the four carry
ing its part in the great harm ony-the
bass, the alto, the tenor, the soprano, in
the grand march of the Union.
congratulate you, the officers and SOL
diers of this National eucampment that
if a foreign attack should at any time be
made you would be ready, and there
would be millions of the drilled men of
North and South, like the men of my first
text, which could keep rank, and like the
men of my second text, that would not
miss hair-breath.
eat this National drill when :thirty-one
States of the Union are represented, and
between the decorations of the graves of
the Southern dead, which took place a
few days ago, and the decorations of the
graves of the Northern dead, which shall
take place tomorrow, would stir the
Christian patriotism and gratitude not
only of this soldiery here present, but of
all the people, by putting before them
the difference between these times, when
the soldiers of all sections meet in peace,
and the times when they met in contest.
Contrast the feeling of sectional bitter
ness in 1856, with the feeling OF sectional
unity in 1887. At the first date the South
had banished the National air. s'The
Star Spangled Banner" and the North had
banished the popular air of away Down
South in Dixie" The Northern people
were .mudsills' and the Southern people
were white trash The more Southern
people killed in battle, the better the
North liked it. The more Northern peo-
killed in battle, the better the South liked
it. For four years the head Of Abraham
Llncoln or Jefferson DAVIS would have
been worth million dollars, if delivered
on either side the line. No need now,
standing in our pulpits and platforms,
OF saying that the North and South did
not hate each other. To estimate how
dearly they loved each other, count up
the bombshells that were hurled, and the
carbines that were loaded, and the cav
airy horses that We're mounted; North
and South facing each other ali around,
in the attempt to kill The two sections
not only marshaled all their earthly hos
tilities, but tried to reach up and get hold
OF the sword of Heaven, and the prayer
Of the Northern and Southern pulpits
gave more information to the Heavens
about the best mode Of settling this
trouble than was ever used. For four
years both sides tried to get hold Of the
Lords thunder bolts, but could not quite
reach them. At the breaking out Of the
war we had not for mon this heard of nv
dear uncle, Samuel j. Talmage, president
OF the Oglethorpe University, in Georgia
He was about the grandest man l ever
knew, and as good as good could be. The
first we heard Of him was his opening
prayer in the Confederate Congress in
Richmond, which was reported in the
@sO" = YIN PopOISs pEdyOT, IL du-
swered. would, to say the least, have left
all his northernsrelatives in very uncom-
Portable circumstances. The ministry at
the North prayed one way and the minis
try at the South prayed the other way
No use in hiding the fact that the North
and the South cursed each other with a
whitening and all-consuming curse.
Contrast also the domestic life OF those
times with the domestic life of these
times. Many Of you are either leaving
home or far away from it, communicating
by uncertain letter. What a morning
that was when you left homei Father and
mother crying, sisters crying you smiling
outside, but crying, inside Everybody
nervous and excited. Boys of the blue
and grayl whether you started from the
banks OF the Hudson, or the Savannah, or
the Androscoggin don't you remem be
the scenes at the front door, at the rail
car window, on the steamboat landings.
The huzza could not drown out the sup
pressed sadness. Don't you remember
those charges to write home often,
and take good care of yourself, be good
boys, and the goodbye kiss winch they
thought, and you thought, might
be foreveri Then the inconsistencies
as you paced the river bank on a star
light night on picket duty, and the sly
tears which you wiped off when you heard
q group at the campfire singing the
plantation song about the old folks
at home. The dinner of hard-tack on
Thanksgiving Day, the Christmas without
any presents, and the long nights in the
hospital SO different from the sickness.
when you were at home with mother and
sister at the bedside, and the clock in the
hall giving the exact moment for the
medicine; and that forced march, when
your legs ached, and your head ached,
and your wounds ached, and more than
all, your heart ached Homesickness
which had in it suffocation and pang
worse than death. You never got harden
ed as did the guardsman in the Crimean
war who heartlessly wrote home to his
mother:
do not want to see any more crying letters
come to the Crimea from you. Those have
received put into my rifle after loading it, and
have fired them at the Russians because You
appear to have strong dislike of them. II
you had seen as many killed as have you
would not have as many weak ideas as you now
have.
You never felt like that. When a SOL
dier's knapsack was found after his death
In the American war there was generally
careful package containing Bible, a
few photographs and letters from home.